Presidential visit's cost to Riverside County estimated at half-million dollars

Jun. 10, 2013

Riverside County Sheriff's deputies in riot gear in preparation for President Xi Jinping and first lady Peng Liyuan's return from Sunnylands to the Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa on Saturday June 8, 2013. / Denise Goolsby/The Desert Sun

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The Desert Sun

RIVERSIDE — The cost of having the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department help protect a couple of presidents will add up to “in the neighborhood of a half-million dollars,” Riverside County Supervisor John Benoit said.

The cities most affected by the summit have made efforts to chip in on overtime for deputies brought in from around the county, but most of the bill will likely be shouldered by the sheriff’s contingency budget, and, if needed, the county general fund, he said.

Benoit said not to expect any help from the federal government either, based on his prior experience as a California Highway Patrol commander. The Secret Service’s approach historically has been, “‘We need 10,000 officers, and, by the way, we can’t pay you anything.’ Then we would negotiate them down to a number that was safe, and affordable.”

It’ll take a while to finalize the books, said Benoit, who doesn’t know how much of the cost will be attributable to having a Chinese president to worry about, along with the American president. The bill goes up with the level of the dignitaries involved, he said, “and it doesn’t get any higher than this.”

The Vietnamese and Chinese protesters around Sunnylands also boosted the cost, Benoit said, but “there probably isn’t any kind of meeting between two heads of state that wouldn’t draw large groups of people from one side or the other.”

Rancho Mirage City Manager Randy Bynder said Saturday there were 40 to 50 Rancho Mirage-based sheriff’s deputies securing the perimeter of Sunnylands at all times, with additional emergency response and tactical teams deployed near the site and another team on standby.

Residents of two neighborhoods, Desert Island and Villaggio, needed identification to get past roadblocks on Frank Sinatra Drive, and local officers were stationed there in order to make the process run more smoothly.

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One protester was hospitalized Friday morning for a diabetic incident, said Bynder, who was not aware of any protesters needing treatment for heat-related illnesses despite the triple-digit high temperatures.

Figures on the economic benefit of having the summit in the valley, in terms of hotel rooms, restaurant checks and other commerce, are hard to come by.

But Tom Freeman, commissioner of the Office of Foreign Trade for the county’s Economic Development Agency, said President George H.W. Bush’s 1990 summit with Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu was estimated “in the multiple millions of dollars” and that was more than 20 years ago.

Another benefit somewhat difficult to quantify would be the international exposure of the destination, tourism leaders said ahead of the summit.

“It will create a nice compression for the first 10 days of June not counting the publicity we will get worldwide, especially in China,” Aftab Dada, general manager for the Hilton Palm Springs, had said.

“There is definitely positive economic impact from the staff, press, etc., that will be in town related to the event especially lodging and meals for anyone not staying on the grounds of Sunnylands,” James Canfield, executive director of the Palm Springs Convention Center, said before the summit began.